Attachment for brick-machines



(No Model.)

P. G. BENSON.

ATTACHMENT FOR BRICK MACHINES. 7 No. 398,813. Patented Mar. 5, 1889.

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. Wag/4v 5 @554 Uurrr: STATES PHILLIP G. BENSON,

ATTACHMENT FOR OF AURORA, ILLINOIS.

BRICK-MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 398,813, dated March 5, 1889.

Application filed September 1, 1888' Serial No. 284,819. No modehl Aurora, in the county of Kane and State of r of machines the bricks are called end-cut,

Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Brick-Making Machines; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it apportains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accoinpanying drawings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this i specification. In making bricks, and especially those known to the trade as common brick, made 5 in machines in which the moistened clay is forced through a cylinderor chamber and out 1 through a die or passage-way by means of a screw or a piston plunger having avcry deep propelling-thread, it has always been found very difficult, and generally impossible, to make the finished brick straight on its top and bottom, the office of the die, through which the previously mixed and prepared clay is forced, being to determine the size and shape of the bricks. in some kinds or types the size and shape of the passage-way or out let of the die being exactly the shape and size transversely corresponding to the transverse or crosswise cut or section of the brick; or, in other words, an end view of the mass or body of clay, as it comes out of the mouth of the die, is just the size of a brick viewed endwise, and such a mass, emerging in the form of a continuous clay bar, is divided or cut up into these green bricks by means of cutters which are constituted usually of a series of fine steel wires, which are stretched upon a hinged frame, and which are either automatically orb y hand brought down across the mass of clay, so as to cut off at each action as many green bricks as there are wires.

In other machines now generally in use, and known as those making side-cut bricks, g the shape and size of the mouth of the die, and consequently of the end of the clay as it is forced out of the same, correspond to the top or bottom area of the brick; or, in other words, supposing the finished brick to be the common size of two by four by eight 1 inches, the wires are placed two inches from each other, and when the mass has been advanced on the table far enough to be out they cut through the clay, leaving the green bricks each resting on one of its two-by'eight sides. New side-cut bricks are generally pre ferred to end-cut ones; but heretofore it has been found impossible to make them straight to a certainty, and when burned and used in building they will not lie flat in a wall, but almost invariably either the top or bottom surface, or both, will be more or less convex or a concave. This undesirable curvature is caused while no such friction or resistance exists away from these walls and within the centralportion or body of the mass. This friction retards and holds back the mass at its surface, (which ultiniatelybecomcs the ends and edges of the brick,) but not elsewhere; hence the central part of the mass goes forward, under the pressure given by the screw, faster than the rest, and it is this central part which, when the wires have out off the green bricks from the mass, become the top and bottom of the bricks, and the result is that after burning, the bricks are crooked, brittle, and weak.

Now the object of my present invention isto produce side-cut bricks that are straight and strong, and that will lie in a wall as well as pressed bricks; and this I effect by a specially grooved or corrugated blade having an unbroken but zigzag or fan-like and thin terminal edge for producing a friction and resistance on and retardation of the central port-i011 or body of the mass of clay as it is forced or passed through the die substantially equal to that which is unavoidably caused by the walls of the die. The means which I have invented for producing this valuable result I will now describe. I

In the drawings, Figure 1 shows enough of a screw brick-machine to illustrate my invention, a part of the casing of the machine being broken away to better show my improvement as applied thereto ready for use. Fig. O shows detached, but in an enlarged view,

my corrugated steel blade, and which I apply to the machine so that its corrugatedend inasmuch as the breadth of the end of the blade must be limited relatively to the may project a short distance into the center breadth of the clay-discharging passage 0,

of the body or mass of wet clay as the latter 5 is forced through the die. Fig. 2? is an end view of the corrugated blade.

A represents the usual casing or cylinder of the mill, and B the screw or revolving pro- 3 peller which forces the wet clay forward and 1 out from such cylinder and through its nar rowing passage or die 0.

D is the corrugated blade, which is held vanced beyond the blade.

and there should be about as much central friction or resistance imparted by this blade to the forward movement of the center of the mass of clay as the walls ofthe passage offer to the sides of the mass. The whole mass moves forward evenly, and,the blade being thin, the clay closes up tight after having ad- This equality o1- approximate equality of resistance and restationary, the end of the auger or screw being hollow and fitted to revolve upon the shank e of the blade, as shown, such blade 3 beingpositioned and firmly fastened so that T itsshank may be in thecenter or axial line of the screw and that its corrugated "broad end may be central of'the die-passage. This blade is thin at itst'erni'imis' and for much ofits length, and is longitudinally"grodved or 001: rugated, so" that its end view may preferably present the appearance of a zigzag line whose angles are acute; but the terminal zigzaglin'e' 2 5 constituted of the surfaces fgisa continuous unbroken one, so that when the clay shall have been forced past such edge there shall not be left in the central body of the clay any torn, ragged, orirregular edges or lines incapable of closely interlocking together; but,

on the contrary, the clay as it leaves the terminal ends of both the top and bottom surfaces of the'blade D is not only closely and equally compacted, but the upper corruga- 3 5 tions in the clay precisely fit and accord and interlock with the lower ones and unite inti mat-sly throughout their entire surfaces; 'Another object of the corrugation is that its surfaces f g, which shall bear upon and retard 40 the advance of the central part of the body of clay as forced forward may be largely i11- creased, or, say, doubled or trebled, beyond what they would be if the end of the blade were a mere straight line, like a common 5 knife edge, by making the grooves of the blade deeper and the angles of the grooves more acute at will. The grooves, it will be observed, diminish both in depth and in their pitch or angularity as they extend backward 5o froni' the terminal-edge until those on each side of the blade are lost to the eye "and merge into the ungrooved portion, and in no instance is any groove cut clear throughthe blade to leave any slit or passage throiigh it which could break up the clay which ithas already compacted by permitting it to ooze or be squeezed through. This multiplication of frictional surfaces is of great importance, 1'

tardation prevents that varying condition in the discharged quadrangular bar of clay from which the green bricks are afterward cut, and consequently prevents that bending or curvature of thebaked brick and insures absolutely true straight bricks.

It will be evident that'for any given machine tlie breadth of'th'e'blade and the depth orcheracter ofthe'grooves and ribs maybe range" to meet any required conditions," and also that in'tlie same machine a set of such blades may be provided and one substituted for another as circumstances may require for producing the best results.

It will be observed that in a blade constructed in accordance with my invention the ridges or ribs on either side, like the folds of a ladys fan, constitute the grooves on the opposite side of the blade.

"It will b'eevide'nt that the green blocks or bricks "may be cut from the ejected bar of clay in any well-known manner-not necessary to'be described-as, for instance, by a series of cutting-wires, as hereinbefore named. 'l claini 1. -As'an attachment for brick-machines, the grooved 'blade' D as made with continuoi1s and gradually deepening grooves and ribs on its-opposite surfaces, all terminating in on'ethin zigzag or corrugated edge, as shown anddes'cribed, and adapted" to be held stationary'a't or near the exit-mouth of'the machine, asset forth. i

'2. Incombination with a brick-making machine, a' stationary ,bar reduced at its outer end to a thinned blade, D, having unbroken longitudinal grooves extending to' a thin ter-' minal edg'e'of the blade, all as set forth,such blade being located to project beyond the ex t remity of the claypropelling mechanism, all substantially as set forth.

PHILLIP G. BENSON.

Witnesses:

M. O. SOUTHWQRTH, CHAS. E. W AVER. 

